Are house crows an emerging bird flu threat in South Asia?

Failure to develop effective strategies to address the potential role of house crows in bird flu transmission could increase the risk of human infection.

Recently, hundreds of thousands of poultry were culled across Nepal following the confirmation of avian influenza (commonly known as bird flu) outbreaks. The virus had first emerged in Morang district, eastern Nepal, this year. Moreover, Nepal’s only central zoo was forced to close indefinitely after several captive birds, including owls, vultures and egrets, as well as mammals such as civets and leopard cats, died from bird flu.